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Whaddaya Know: Following Biden’s shooting advice could equal jail time in Delaware

Turns out the “advice” the nation’s veep gave this week regarding firing ‘warning shoots’ from a shotgun if you feel threatened might get a Delaware gun owner in trouble with the law. Oops! Via US News:

Vice President Joe Biden might want to have a talk with his son, Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden, before he makes another public statement about guns.

In a Facebook “chat” Tuesday, the vice president said that he had advised his wife, Jill, to fire a shotgun in the air from their Delaware home’s porch if she was concerned for her safety.

“I said, ‘Jill, if there’s ever a problem, just walk out on the balcony here, walk out and put that double-barrel shotgun and fire two blasts outside the house,'” Biden said.

“You don’t need an AR-15—it’s harder to aim,” he added, “it’s harder to use, and in fact you don’t need 30 rounds to protect yourself. Buy a shotgun! Buy a shotgun!”

However, Delaware law would likely make his suggestion illegal—unless the shots were fired in self-defense in a truly life-threatening situation.

A sergeant with the Wilmington, Del., police department explained to U.S. News that city residents are not allowed to fire guns on their property.

The sergeant, who preferred not to be identified, said that Wilmington residents are also not allowed to shoot trespassers. “On your property you can’t just shoot someone,” he said. “You have to really feel that your life is being threatened.”

Defense attorney John Garey—a former Delaware deputy attorney general—agreed, and added that several criminal charges might result if Jill Biden took her husband’s advice.

“In Delaware you have to be in fear of your life to use deadly force,” Garey said. “There’s nothing based on his scenario alone” indicating a reason to fear imminent death, he noted.

Garey said that under Biden’s scenario, Jill Biden could be charged with aggravated menacing, a felony, and reckless endangering in the first degree.

“It is not uncommon” for people to be charged with crimes under similar circumstances, he said. “I’ve seen cases where lawful citizens have used guns outside their homes and they end up arrested.”

Rob Wiltbank, a gun rights advocate who founded Delaware Open Carry in 2008, told U.S. News he agrees with the vice president that a shotgun would be good for home protection, but he was also troubled by the hypothetical.

“It would be incredibly irresponsible of a gun owner to blindly discharge a firearm into the air,” said Wiltbank. “What goes up, must come down and this specific behavior has been the cause of many negligent homicides over the years.”

Tom Shellenberger, a lawyer who serves as a spokesman for the Delaware State Sportsmen’s Association, told U.S. News that Biden’s security tip was “the worst type of advice.”

5 thoughts on “Whaddaya Know: Following Biden’s shooting advice could equal jail time in Delaware”

Obhammud and Joe Blow just shoot their mouths off and say all manner of irresponsible and half-serious crap. It’s in their DNA. Think back on how many initiatives, other than “gun control task force”, Obhammud has proposed that never get used or never materialize in the first place. There is a whole boxcar full; jobs council, Simpson-Bowles commission, various websites, and now his latest commission on cyberspace encroachments, ad nauseum.

The Vice President of the United States is the man our celebrity President put at the head of the “gun control task force”….yet he apparently doesn’t know the gun laws in his own state.

So why, pray tell, is that a problem? Since when do the laws – or the Constitution, for that matter – make any difference to this bunch? Pay your taxes – not necessary, it’s only the law. Submit a budget – no need, it’s only the law.

Not to worry, folks. Soon enough in Delaware it’ll be illegal to have any firearms anyway…

Then Slo Joe’s wife can urinate on herself to repel an attacker, or scream and hope that her nearest neighbor, probably some few hundred yards away, hears her, or try to beat the guy with an illegal firearm off with a rolling pin.

Yeah, that works. Like El Presidente candidate said in the run-up to the 2008 election, ya don’t bring a knife (or rolling pin) to a gunfight.

But Slo Joe, whose brain has been eaten away by progressivism, or booze, or dope, or whatever, can’t even understand what that means.

And why would he care? In his mind it’s only some broad about to be raped, and she doesn’t count until three or more votes are needed. To misquote him, “It really ISN’T a big fxxxing deal.”